On the Ball / ANSTOSS series

Group Description

Designed by Gerald Köhler at Ascaron, the ANSTOSS (literally "Kick off") series are the best known football managing games developed in Germany, mostly thanks to the English version of the first game (titled "On the Ball") and after Köhler's "defection" to EA (where he would take much of the style to develop the Total Club Manager series). The series are known for a peculiar kind of humour and a much broader business sense than most UK developed games in the genre.

In 2001, the match engine of ANSTOSS 3 was re-issued as a standalone game, but kept a bond between both games, allowing to intervene in 3D matches instead of just watching the computer play.